President Joe Biden just expressed a willingness to meet up with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "without preconditions."
White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby indicated as much during an interview that he did on Thursday with the Japanese outlet Kyodo News.
The purpose of the meetup, according to Kirby, would be to discuss the removal of nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula.
It would be interesting to hold a poll to see how many Americans currently trust Biden to be able to competently negotiate the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula with Kim Jong Un "without preconditions." Surely, the answer would be not many.
What Kirby actually revealed in the interview is that the Biden administration has already made this offer - a condition-less meetup between Biden and Kim Jong Un - to North Korea.
"They have not responded positively to that offer, but it's still on the table," Kirby said. "We are willing to sit down and negotiate without preconditions."
Not only have they "not responded positively to that offer," but Kirby also revealed that Kim "has shown no interest" in the offer.
As is often the case with the Biden administration, there are still a lot of unknowns here. We do not know, for example, when the Biden administration first made this offer to North Korea.
North Korea, itself, at the time of this writing, has not commented on the matter. But, North Korea has made it clear in the past that it is intentionally refusing to respond to any communications from the Biden administration.
Kirby's remarks came the day before a planned meetup between Biden, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The meetup took place at Camp David in Maryland.
"This is the first summit I’ve hosted at Camp David, and I can think of no more fitting location to symbolize our new era of cooperation," Biden said.
This "new era of cooperation" among the U.S., South Korea, and Japan, comes amid increasing threats from the likes of North Korea and China. Biden has sought to make it clear whose side the U.S. is on in an effort at deterrence.
If Biden were to meet up with the North Korean leader, it would be the first meetup of its kind for his administration.
Former President Donald Trump, in contrast, managed to meet up with Kim Jong Un on three occasions during his presidency.
